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Episode 86 – Ma Ferguson the first woman governor of Texas

Hello everybody and welcome once again to the Hidden History of Texas. I’m Hank Wilson and this is Episode 86 – were I continue telling y’all about some of the “notorious” governors we’ve had. This episode is devoted to Miriam Amanda (Ma) Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas.

Born in Bell County on June13, 1875, to Joseph L. and Eliza (Garrison) Wallace, she attended Salado College and Baylor Female College at Belton. In 1899 at the age of 24 she married James Edward Ferguson in a ceremony in Bell County. She served as the first lady of Texas during the gubernatorial terms of her husband, who managed to get himself impeached during his second administration. I talked about his administration in a previous episode, which I’m sure is still available.

Even though he had been impeached and forced out of office in 1924 Old Pa Ferguson tried to once again run for Governor. Now even in Texas we sometimes draw line as to who or what we want in the governor’s office, and the court’s said he was not eligible. In order to keep power in the family Miriam or Ma as she was known entered the race for the Texas governorship. Why was she called Ma? Prior to this entrance into politics, she had devoted her energies almost exclusively to her husband and two daughters and because of this and the combination of her first and middle initials, her supporters called her “Ma” Ferguson.

While, in theory it was her campaign, she made it clear that if she were elected, she would follow the advice of her husband. This meant then, as she proudly said, that Texas thus would gain “two governors for the price of one.”  One goal of her campaign was to have her husband’s name vindicated. She promised to make extensive cuts in state appropriations. She condemned the Ku Klux Klan, and opposed passing new liquor legislation, (this was during the years leading up to prohibition). Initially, in the primary, she trailed the Klan-supported prohibitionist candidate, Felix D. Robertson; however, she was able to easily defeat him in an August run-off to become the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

Then in November of 1924 she handily defeated the Republican nominee, George C. Butte, a former dean of the University of Texas law school. Many folks are unaware that in those days, the Republicans where the more liberal of the parties and the democrats were in favor of segregation and generally supported the Klan. She was inaugurated fifteen days after Wyoming’s Nellie Ross, thus becoming the second woman governor in United States history. Her first administration is remember by historians as being dominated by political strife and controversy. What did she do or didn’t do?

She did fulfilled a campaign promise to secure an antimask law against the Ku Klux Klan, (for those who are truly unaware of the KKK, they, much like today when people wear masks or hoods to cover their faces, the Klan wore hoods because they don’t want people to know who they are) however the courts overturned it.

In her administration a series of events took place that many current voters can recognize due to how they seem to occur in today’s politics. For example, she had pledged to reduce state expenditures and the budget by $15 million, but in fact they increased. She and her husband, remember Pa, were accused of irregularities both in the granting of pardons and paroles and in the letting of road contracts by the state highway department. It seems that Ma Ferguson pardoned an average of 100 convicts a month, and she and “Pa” both were accused by critics of accepting bribes of land and cash payments.  An attempt to impeach Ma failed, but in 1926 those controversies helped Attorney General Daniel James Moody defeat her and win the governorship.

Two years later, in 1928, she decided not to run for office, but in 1930 the Texas Supreme Court once again rejected her husband’s petition to place his name on the ballot for governor, so she decided to run. In the May primary she led Ross Sterling, but then Sterling defeated her in an August runoff. This loss turned out to be fairly good for her reputation because Sterling was blamed by the voters when Texans began to feel the full impact of the Great Depression.

In February 1932 she again ran for governor under a platform of lowering taxes and once again reducing state expenditures. In what many see as ironic, she also condemned alleged waste, graft, and political favoritism by the Sterling-controlled highway commission. Because of the effect of the depression on Texans, she easily beat Sterling in the May primary by over 100,000 votes, she then narrowly won in the August runoff to secure the democratic nomination. Defeating Orville Bullington, the Republican nominee thus securing her second term as governor. This time her administration did not generate nearly as much controversy as the first. The fiscally conservative governor held the line on state expenditures and even advocated a state sales tax and corporate income tax, although the state legislature did not act on these proposals. She did however continue her liberal pardoning and parole policies, but since this was during the depression, those helped to ease some of the strain on the state budget, and so they weren’t seen as controversial as the first terms ones were.

1934 the Fergusons decided to retire from direct involvement in politics, and she refused to seek office in 1936 and 1938. But like many politician retirements, this turned out to be temporary.  Ma Ferguson declared for governor in 1940. Now sixty-five years old, she claimed there was a “popular draft” for her to seek the nomination. She joined a field of prominent Democrats that included incumbent governor W. Lee O’Daniel.

Ma’s platform advocated a 25 percent cut in state appropriations, a gross-receipts tax of .5 percent to raise social security funds for the elderly, support for organized labor, and liberal funding for secondary and higher education. Even though the Ferguson name sill held strong approval from some, Governor O’Daniel proved to be too popular to unseat. Pa Ferguson passed away in 1944, and Miriam then retired to private life in Austin. She died of heart failure on June 25, 1961, and was buried alongside her husband in the State Cemetery in Austin.  Rest in Peace Ma and Pa Ferguson two of our more notable and some say notorious governors of Texas.

I’m Hank Wilson and this has been the Hidden History of Texas and another in our series on “notorious” Texas governors, see you next time, thanks for listening.